A copy of "Horses Grazing" by Sir Alfred Munnings

A copy of "Horses Grazing" by Sir Alfred Munnings, background completed

As a painter  it is an incredibly valuable exercise copying great painters when time allows, it helps train the eye and forces us to work in differing styles, pushing us out of our comfort zone.
I saw this painting in the Willow Gallery London in 2008, it was up for sale for £80,000, a bit out of my price range, so i decided to make a copy of it for a friend who loves Horses and Munning's work.
It had previously been up for sale at Christie's in 2004 with an estimate of between £80,000-120,000

I started off drawing a grid over a photocopy of the sales catalog picture and then drew the picture out on a canvass the same size as the original 16"x 20"

The above picture shows a the picture after blocking out of the landscape, the grid lines still show on the horses in the foreground.
Munning's work is in general a lot looser, bolder, quicker and more expressive than I normally work. I think this painting is quite quick even for him, probably being just a few hours work.
It was painted in 1914 and by this time Munnings was a firm follower in the plein-air tradition. This was probably just a oil sketch to be worked up later in the studio. As he became more successful these sketches were submitted to dealers exhibitions as paintings in their own right.
It is the sweeping brushstrokes and dabs of  contrasting colour underpinned with excellent observation I find enticing about this picture.

 Copy of "Horses Grazing" by Sir Alfred Munnnings, blocking in completed

Above shows the progress to nearly complete. To compare with the original, search google images for "horses grazing" by Sir Alfred Munnings. I left the head collar and rope off the grey horse in the foreground, preferring to see horses graze free range style !!